Thursday, April 21, 2016

Why battle ridiculously heavy traffic and crowded trains and elbow
your way past hordes of annoying people who can’t stop blocking the escalators
when you can buy the exact same things on the internet or in heartland malls?

Once upon a time, shopping in heartland malls meant wearing This
Fashion clothes or being limited to the book selection at Popular.

Nowadays, new heartland malls are much more happening. There are
stores like Kate Spade Saturday, Calvin Klein Jeans and Armani Exchange at
Westgate, while Nex at Serangoon has a rooftop garden with, get this, a dog
park, which we have to admit is freaking cool.

Even if you live in Bukit Batok or Yishun, where the neighbourhood
malls still suck, you can just buy stuff online. Online shopping is often
cheaper than buying stuff in malls since you don’t need to subsidise the high
cost of rent, plus you can buy from retailers without Singapore outlets like
Target.

You know what’s better than Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road? Not
having to deal with not just cars but also other people.

Yvette, a 38-year-old lawyer, concurs. “I buy a large fraction of
my things online now, from vitamin supplements to books for my kids. It’s so
much more convenient as I don’t need to waste my time travelling to shopping
malls. I can even get the merchants to deliver my purchases to my office.”

Don’t even get us started about the increase in parking fares.
You’d be hardpressed to find a mall in the main Orchard Road area with a
per-entry fee after 6pm. Instead, they’ve been replaced with time-based per entry
rates. Thankfully there are still some safe havens for relatively affordable
parking, which we’ve compiled here.